Irene Jensen

Irene Jensen

Professor | Docent
Telephone: +46852483212
Visiting address: Nobels väg 13, 17177 Solna
Postal address: C6 Institutet för miljömedicin, C6 IIR Björklund, 171 77 Stockholm
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About me

  • My current position is professor of corporate health and research director. I lead a research group that tries to understand mechanisms that create good work health and work ability. The aim of the research conducted in my group is to contribute to improve working conditions and environment for employers and employees where health, well-being and productivity goes hand in hand. Facilitating this supports the development of healthy work places. To enable the translation of research into practice my group work in close cooperation with partners, i.e. end users of our research results, organized as practice based research network. My special area of interest is work place interventions to prevent work related illness and the promotion of work ability. A further interest is work-health economics, an area where the economic aspects from an employer perspective is considered. I hold Sweden's first professorship in research on occupational healthcare methods, as well as a program support to develop this research area.

    Commisons of trust
    - Member of the Board of the National Research Center for the Work Environment (NFA), Copenhagen. Member of the Quality Council at the Agency for Work Environment (MynAK), 2018-ff Chairman of the committee at FORTE in the area of work organization 2015 - 2016 and from 2017 in the field of occupational health.
    - Member of a scientific council and expert advisory board for the institute for evaluation of labour market and education policy
    - Member of a scientific council and expert advisory board for the Ministry of social affairs, Swedish government concerning rehabilitation and sick leave Member of a scientific council and expert advisory board for the Ministry of Employment, Swedish government concerning work environment Scientific advisor within the AFA Insurance program Work &
  • Health Member of the Scientific Council for the Development of Back Rehabilitation Centres in Stockholm County council Board member of the Swedish Society of Behavioural Medicine Member of Cochrane Collaboration Musculoskeletal Working Group on Back Pain. Member in an international task force Sex, gender and Pain within IASP. Member of expert group on sick leave in the the Swedish Council on Technology Assessment in Health Care. Member of an international expert group within EU of chronic back problems (COST). Co-chair within a task force in the EU Work Life 2000. Implementation and dissemination of guidelines.

    Education
    Psychologist, BSc. in 1985, Örebro University. PhD in medical science, personal injury prevention. Thesis ‘Non-specific spinal pain. Multidisciplinary intervention, a cognitive-behavioural approach’, 1993 at Karolinska Institute. Associate professor at Karolinska Institutet in 1999. Professor in personal injury prevention in 2004 and Professor in corporate health in 2011, at Karolinska Institutet. Lic. Psychotherapist in 2005.

Research

  • The research is multidisciplinary and focused on developing and evaluating interventions in order to identify cost-effective methods for improving occupational health, and to scientifically study how methods can be implemented cost-effectively in society. Implementation of research findings in to society - so-called evidence-based practice (EBP) - is a relatively new and undeveloped research area. Implementation research is about studying processes for implementation and developing effective methods for changing and introducing new ways of working. Evaluation of implementation into everyday practice is essential and a tool for improving processes and compliance with new methods. Evaluation of implementation should include both process analysis, effect evaluation in terms of behavioral change and quality of performance, as well as measurement of the effects the intervention is expected to generate i.e employee sickness absence, lifestyle, health, etc. My research team has developed methods for cost-effective interventions for back pain and methods for reducing sick leave while increasing productivity in companies.

    In 1997 professor Irene Jensen initiated the first scientific study on yoga in Sweden at the Karolinska institute, a pilot study on yoga as seconday prevention for unspciified spine problems. When she 14 years later followed it up with a larger study she had already initiated a chain of events that in 2010 had led to the implementation of MediYoga as regular rehab in the Swedish NHS.

    Our research is conducted in close collaboration with occupational healthcare, the parties of the labor market, industry, insurance companies, municipalities, county councils, and more, as a prerequisite for successful implementation of new methods is that research is conducted close to those who will use the methods. I hold Sweden's first professorship in research on occupational healthcare methods, as well as a program support to develop this research area.

    Research areas
    - Back and neck pain
    - Stress related illness and common mental disorders
    - Rehabilitation
    - Work site health promotion
    - Psychosocial work environment
    - Workers health
    - Health economics
    - Work health economics
    - Implementation research

Teaching

  • Min forskning är huvudsakligen inriktad på metoder för hälsofrämjande på arbetsplatsen. En stor del av forskningen har fokuserat på smärta och besvär från nacke/rygg, som är en av de dominerande orsakerna till långvarig sjukfrånvaro. Relationen mellan hälsa och arbete studeras utifrån antagandet att den anställdes hälsa (oberoende av orsak till ohälsa) påverkar arbetsförmåga och prestation och därmed produktiviteten i organisationen. Därför är det viktigt att finna kostnadseffektiva metoder för att förebygga och åtgärda ohälsa på arbetsplatsen. Genom att arbeta med detta skapas förutsättningar för människor att leva ett liv med god livskvalitet, både i privat- såväl som i arbetslivet.

    Forskningen är tvärvetenskaplig och inriktad på att utveckla och utvärdera interventioner i syfte att identifiera kostnadseffektiva metoder för att förbättra arbetshälsan, samt att vetenskapligt studera hur metoderna kostnadseffektivt kan implementeras i samhället. Implementering av vetenskapligt belagda metoder - så kallad evidensbaserad praktik (EBP) - är ett relativt nytt och ännu oetablerat forskningsområde. Implementeringsforskning handlar om att studera processer för implementering och utveckla effektiva metoder för att förändra och föra in nya arbetssätt. Utvärdering av implementeringen är essentiell och blir ett redskap för att förbättra processer och följsamheten med nya metoder. Utvärderingar av implementering bör innehålla både process analys, effektmätning i form av beteendeförändring och kvalitet i utförande samt mätning av de effekter som interventionen/metoden förväntas generera på exempelvis anställdas sjukfrånvaro, livsstil, hälsa, etc. Genom att följa upp både process och effekt får man mer av ett helhetsperspektiv på en implementering.

    Min forskargrupp har bland annat utvecklat metoder för kostnadseffektiv rehabilitering av långvariga ryggbesvär samt metoder för att kostnadseffektivt minska sjukfrånvaro och samtidigt höja produktiviteten i företag. Forskningen bedrivs i nära samarbete med företagshälsovård, arbetsmarknadens parter, industrin, försäkringsbolag, kommuner, landsting, med flera, eftersom en förutsättning för att framgångsrikt implementera nya metoder är att forskningen bedrivs nära de som skall bruka metoderna.

    Research areas

    Ryggbesvär Stress relaterad mental ohälsa Rehabilitering Hälsopromotion på arbetsplatsen Psykosocial arbetsmiljö Arbetshälsa

    Hälsoekonomi

    Arbetshälsoekonomi

    Implementeringsforskning

    Finansiering

    FORTE
    AFA
    EU
    Departement
    MynAK
    ECCR

Articles

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Grants

Employments

  • Professor, Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, 2011-2025

Degrees and Education

  • Docent, Karolinska Institutet, 1999

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